The Berkeley waterfront: Illustrations of conservation, restoration, and development

In the late 1960s, UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design established the Environmental Simulation Laboratory in response to people's growing concern for the environment and ecological well-being. The Lab developed methods for measuring and communicating the effects of urbanization on cities and landscapes, utilizing bespoke scale models and in-house cinematographic technical innovations. According to retired lab director and urban design professor Peter Bosselmann, the films were produced as studies "to test how model simulation could aid the decision-making process in the approval of large planning and engineering projects. A computer-guided camera mounted on a moving crane traveled at eye level through a model landscape and recorded, on 16mm film, the experience" of moving through simulated spaces. John Dykstra, working with the Lab prior to achieving fame for his Academy Award-winning visual effects work on the first Star Wars film, helped to develop the Lab's special camera system, which was a precursor to the Dykstraflex system used in Star Wars. The Berkeley waterfront: Illustrations of conservation, restoration, and development was funded by the State Coastal Conservancy in an effort to visualize ways to protect and improve the natural habitat along the San Francisco Bay shoreline in Berkeley.